Samsung, Though 'Not as Cool,' Beats Apple in Court

PARIS — A judge in Britain has ordered Apple to post notices on its Web site and to take out newspaper advertisements declaring that Samsung did not infringe on Apple design patents.

The unusual decision is the latest twist in the global legal battle over patents between the two rivals in the smartphone and tablet computer businesses, in which they are suing each other in more than half a dozen countries. It follows a Pyrrhic victory for Samsung last week, when the High Court judge, Colin Birss, rejected an Apple claim over tablet designs, saying consumers were unlikely to confuse Samsung’s Galaxy tablets with Apple’s iPad because the Samsung devices are “not as cool.”

The phrasing raised eyebrows.

“It isn’t a bad thing if judges aren’t always buttoned up,” said Florian Müller, a consultant in Augsburg, Germany, who blogs about patent issues. “But the ‘not as cool’ thing is such a value judgment.

“It’s a quirky ruling,” Mr. Müller added of the follow-up order, in which Judge Birss told Apple on Tuesday to post a notice on its British Web site for six months, alerting visitors to the finding that Samsung had not violated its design patent. According to Bloomberg News, which said it had obtained a copy of the order from Samsung’s lawyers, the order also requires Apple to take out advertisements to a similar effect in The Financial Times, The Daily Mail and several other British publications.

“Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited,” Samsung said in a statement.

Apple has said it will appeal the first decision. An Apple spokesman, Alan Hely, declined to comment on the latest court order.

While largely siding with Samsung and ordering Apple to acknowledge the decision publicly, Judge Birss nonetheless turned down a Samsung request for an injunction to bar Apple from saying that Samsung had infringed on its patents.

Britain is just one of many fronts on which Apple and Samsung are fighting over a range of technical and design patents. In the United States, Apple has secured preliminary injunctions blocking Samsung from selling several of its devices. A jury trial is set to begin July 30 in San Jose, California.

The companies have filed other claims and counterclaims against each other in countries including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea.

While Apple says Samsung smartphones and tablets look, feel and operate too much like its iPhones and iPads, Judge Birss disagreed. Samsung’s Galaxy tablets, he said last week, are thinner than the iPad and “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” Bloomberg News reported.